Research shows that being in employment soon after release from prison or after completing a community order is key in preventing reoffending. In 2023/24, we supported offenders and ex-offenders through our justice services team, Achieve.
We worked across 14 prisons in the Northwest and four prisons in the North Midlands, through six national, regional and institutional contracts.
We have enjoyed considerable success and have brough impactful innovation to new and existing programmes, delivering services to 10,068 adults.
Case Study: Lancashire/Cumbria IAG: Careers support in custody leading to positive outcomes
The Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG) programme, run by our Achieve Team in five male prisons across Lancashire and Cumbria since 2019, has significantly outperformed national averages in securing post-release employment.
The programme, which focuses on preparing prisoners for work within 12 weeks of their release, has achieved employment rates almost 1.7 times higher than the national average within six weeks post-release, and throughout the year, consistently achieved the highest monthly employment on release percentage, both regionally and nationally.
The programme’s success is attributed by participants and employers to its tailored approach that combines independent careers information advice and guidance, with job brokering, linking prisoners with suitable vacancies in the local labour market.
Employers engaged in the programme report positive experiences regarding the quality of candidates sourced through the programme, and the support provided by the Achieve team has been crucial in maintaining these relationships.
Participant voices:
”They really helped me by not focusing on what I had done in the past but what I could do in the future. They gave me hope but not false hope….no false promises.”
“I didn’t even think about doing what I am doing now and I have recently been put forward for promotion, it’s not what I expected.”
“They got me on the utilities course and a qualification which should mean I can go straight into a job that is quite well paid…that makes a huge difference.”
“The preparation support helped me to be more confident about it. I didn’t necessarily think I would get the job but I knew that I could at least try for it.”
Discover more about the impact we make on the people we support by downloading our full Impact Report 2023/24 via the button below.
